Hi,  My name is Jack Harrill.  I have recently acquired a DYC 26.  It is hull number 277 and ketch rigged.  Previous to this boat I had a Westerly 28 and did some sailing up and down the east coast.  The previous owner took out or closed up the thru hulls and removed the scuppers.  Our Westerly had the same situation with the scuppers bring just a little undersized.  Has anyone replaced them with larger ones?  I got a larger marelon thru hull to play with and it seems to have plenty of room.  I have not gotten upside down to look at where they empty into the keel trunk yet.  Is a larger pipe going to be an issue.  The pipe that is left from the starboard drain appears to have been 3/4 inches.  I don't have the thru hull in hand but think it is 1 1/4inches and it fits fine in the floor.  It doesn't interfere with the floor/engine cover at all.  Since I never saw the originals mounted I just thought I would ask if anyone had tried this or had some information that might keep me from making a mistake.  I would like to know if the originals were mounted flush to the floor or they were mushroom heads?

Thanks,
Jack

I never seem to have time to do something over so it is better to get it right the first time!

-Is this a ketch ?

There have been boats sunk due to blocked drains !  Hull 270 is one of them.  It sank in Salt Water due to leaves blocking the cockpit drains.  The previous owner helped to salvage the boat and was given the boat as payment.  He brought her to just excellent shape, and I've seen no signs of the sinking.

If you wander back through the archives, you will see mention of folks buying boats that had filled with rainwater while on their trailers.  One member mentions the cabin being full of ICE, and have to spend several days melting the ice.

SO, if you can engineer a better system, you will be our hero.

For the short term, I have small screens that fit over the two drains.  The screens are built for bait holding tanks and were in the bargain bin at west marine.  They keep small junk and leaves from getting down into the drain itself. 

Tell us how it goes.  I had not been aware, but boats with diesel for sure, and perhaps others, have the corners cut away on the engine hatch, to allow room for the drains.  Some boats have square engine covers.  Can anyone tell us what determines which cover is used.

Thanks,  My ketch is a normal one with the mizzen in front of the rear companionway.  I did see the pictures of the one mounted on top of the cabin.  That certainly looked nice.  On the cockpit drains, I will sort out the original system this weekend and post that.  My drains are in the corners of the engine cover hatch.  The holes where the drains were are not beveled to take a normal cockpit drain that sits flush to the surface in which it is mounted.  There is some residual sealing compound (or something) around the top of the holes.  I am wondering if this was one of those installations that used plumbing fittings?  If you use a mushroom head thru hull for the top it is easy enough to seal it up and run the drains but it will always leave a little bit of water in the cut away part of the floor just because the mushroom head will stand above the level of the recess.  Has anyone looked at their drains to see if they are flush with the floor or not?  I still have to look at the entry into the keel trunk to make sure that it won't require a major engineering feat to increase the size of the pipe.  On the comment about both draining in one pipe, I would think that is a little risky at best.  I can tell that this boat has two lines run forward for drains but that is all I have been able to see yet.  I will let you know what I find.

Jack

I.ve read a few posts relating to the scuppers on this site. There have been pro's and con's. Most of the discussion is related to a tendency for them to get clogged easily. Also, draining into the keel well has caused some problems.the thru-hull location is a bit of a concern to me as the connections are PVC, with no shut off valve and they are very close to the waterline.There are a few other systems that appear to be factory installed and have a high potential for failure. Mine also had a funky dual bilge pump/rear sink drain system. I am changing a few things, to begin with by removing the rear sink set-up completely. It is amazing how much room I gained by removing the rear sink. I am still simplifying the plumbing system and I will write up what I decide upon when I am done. But for now, the whole rear ink compartment has been remove with all the additional hoses that were attached.
I dont see how two sinks on a 26 foot boat were justified, and for now, the rear drain hole, which was an invitation for a sinking is closed off. Any ideas are welcome. Steve

sorry for the long media blackout all PD friends. 
We recently had kid #3.  All is smooth and the boat is receiving its due.

My D26 has a Yanmar YSB8 and does have the cut aways in the engine hatch.  If you check the gallery, there is a photo.

We just had a super rainy June.  We received sooo much rain.  My boat is on its trailer and the drains plugged with tarp crumbs etc.  When that happens water overflows the engine cover and settles under the diesel.  Given the shallow bilge, it seems like that would be a good spot to mount an 'end of the world' bilge pump using the starboard engine air intake vent as a mouth since you are in that space anyway.  No holes required.  It would be easy to spot trouble while driving by if you were on a mooring.  Aside from that a better solution would be a large drain on the port side of the keel with a direct route to the through hull.  Having just finished a cockpit recore, I have no plans to take that step, but perhaps the former...

Regarding the plumbing route for my boat, starboard joins the port drain and it collects in the keel through hull.  There is another connection to a Guzzler hand bilge with a T into an electric bilge.  I think that is all but will check tonight.

Josh in MN

Sure.  Welcome Steve.  I can provide photos of anything you need.  My boat #272 appears mostly stock.
I have some photos in the gallery and moved others to a new site here:

http://unixbrain.org/boat/albums/dawson26

If you need specific photos, let me know.  I did look into the plumbing last night.  Pretty much as quoted before.

I too recently had the rear cabinet out to figure out how to get the steering pedestal out of the boat.  I agree, there is much more room without it.  I love the aft cabin on this boat.  I will check again Thursday.    I just rebed all chainplates and am finishing reinstalling the cabin entry steps, winches, cabin cleats and jib track. I am using sikaflex 1a adhesive.  You can get it at jamestown or any industrial supplier for about $5/tube.  It is very nice to work with and the colonial white matches the gelcoat on my boat exactly.  Crazy.

cheers,

-josh

Hi, If this gets in twice I apologize.  I was reviewing what I wrote and it sort of disappeared.  I looked carefully at my boats system of draining the cockpit into the engine well today.  The thing that is fixed is the thru-hulls into the keel trunk.  They are standard 1 inch threaded end bronze thru-hulls.  I am going to put a bronze elbow on them to get them pointed toward the drains.  The engine hatch on my boat is one with the corners cut away.  The fiberglass is not thick enough to have used a standard cockpit drain so it must have been plumbing fittings.  I have decided to use two 1 inch mushroom headed thru-hulls with screens.  These will be threaded on the bottom so they will also need an elbow.  If I put an adapter with a hose barb in each elbow and add a piece of 1 inch tube that should do it. 
The other question of how to "fix" the capacity of the cockpit drains is probably as simple as the replacement.  There are actually two choices.  First you can cut a hole through the floor of the cockpit directly into the keel trunk.  I would do this between the forward companionway and the pedestal.  We have another swing keel boat that uses this technique.  Also, you could just add two more cockpit drains at the forward end of the cockpit.  On both sides there should be excellent access to the keel trunk without too much work.  The issue with both solutions is that at some point you need to have the keel down in order to put in the thru hull or the gland nut.  On my boat there is a slight space between the bottom of the cockpit floor and the top of the keel trunk.  This would have to be sealed with a gasket or something like 5200 to insure that no water could leak into the boat.  I have not drilled a hole in the floor of the cockpit yet but if it is fairly thick then we will be able to use regular flush cockpit drains.  Our other boat has a two inch drain directly into the keel trunk and this can really move some water. 

I will let you know how this goes.

Jack

Jack,

Please send photos.  The suggestions are interesting.  Starboard access on my boat was tricky given the headliner.  What about installing a drain  with an elbow to port of the pedestal draining into the keel trunk?  It could save you a lot of hassle topside given easier access?  You would also not have to deal with the gap between the underside of the deck and keel trunk which is painfully small and does have good access starboard given the headliner. 

Josh